Goodbye Paul

Yesterday I did not get to see any of the Tottenham game. Away at Newcastle is always trouble for us for whatever reason. However, as I'm getting ready to sit through 3 hours of terrible football between the Brownies and Bungels, my buddy texted me saying "Lukkkaaa". All I knew is that Spurs little Croatian midfielder, Luka Modric put up his first premier league goal, and second goal of his Tottenham career. Second goal in as many games, Luka has broken his duck. Unfortunately for Spurs, worthless Damien Duff scored for Newcastle in stoppage time to beat us 2-1. This week is Fulham, or America FC.

However, this post is dedicated to a Canadian. I started to follow Tottenham in late 2005. I barely knew any of the players on the squad but followed because my friend had told me about them. I quickly became attached to our two fowards, Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov, neither of which play for us anymore (Keane is a Red, and Berbatov is with United). There was however, one other player I became attached to, and that was Canadian defender Paul Stalteri. Staltsy had just signed from Werder Bremen during that summer, where he had won some silverware with the team in the later years of the 90's.

Stalteri's stint with Tottenham lasted up until around this time last year, where he was loaned to Fulham last January. Hopefully someone will pick him up soon. It'd be a dream to me if somehow Cleveland City Stars picked Stalteri up, but I highly doubt that'd happen.

For myself, probably my favorite Tottenham moment ever, is the Spurs vs West Ham game in 2007 which finished at 4-3 Spurs. West Ham were in a battle to stay up in the Premier League at this point in the season and needed all the points they could get. They had signed world class foward Carlos Tevez, which in itself was a shady deal. West Ham were up 2-0 on us when Jermaine Defoe knocked in a penalty to make it 2-1. Our next goal came off the nastiest back heel by Aaron Lennon, which Teemu Tainio put into the net to make it 2-2. West Ham came back and put a third in the net, which Berbatov leveled back with a gorgeous free kick.

Our 4th and final goal came off the counter attack. Super Sub (at least in this game) Paul Stalteri followed Jermaine Defoe down the whole field and when Defoe's shot was blocked, Stalteri was there to slot the ball into the net. Stalteri became a legend for that goal. It was a beautiful ending to a very thrilling game, and great to see us beat West Ham at home. West Ham should have been relegated, but the Tevez scandal saved them and sent Sheffield United down that year, shame really I'd have loved to see West Ham play Championship Football.

So thank you Paul for your contribution to Spurs, and hope you find a place to play soon.





EDIT:

Paul Stalteri has been signed by German side, Borussia Mönchengladbach. Borussia plays in the 1. Bundesliga, Germany's main league. Hopefully Staltsy performs well for them and get back to his old ways when he first joined the Bundesliga, way back with Werder Bremen.